S'Prod qualifying: Rustad's romp

Although BMW has dominated the championship thus far, Norway's Rustad has already won a race this year and looks highly likely to add a second to his tally from his third pole of the season. He outpaced local hero Luis Villamil's Alfa 156 by 0.271secs to take pole around the former Spanish GP circuit.

"It's great," said Rustad. "The car was excellent and I did only one run so we saved some tyres for the race. We're on a good run at the moment. We had a big gap from free practice, so I knew I had to push hard from the start and put a good lap in."

Behind Villamil, series leader Duncan Huisman (Carly Motors) led the BMW charge with the third fastest time, ahead of the CiBiEmme 320i of former Ferrari F1 racer Gianni Morbidelli.

Tobia Masini (Alfa 156) was fifth fastest, ahead of Simone di Luca in the second Nissan. Norman Simon was seventh in the first of Robert Ravaglia's squad of BMWs, but team mate Peter Kox could only manage ninth.

Britain's Tom Ferrier, who came close to recording his first BTCC win at Donington recently, was 10th quickest, one place ahead of team mate James Hanson, who stopped out on the circuit mid-way through the session.

Tommy Rustad, Nissan Primera, 1m45.468s
Luis Villamil, Alfa Romeo 156, 1m46.305s
Duncan Huisman, BMW 320i, 1m45.823s
Gianni Morbidelli, BMW 320i, 1m46.140s
Tobia Masini, Alfa Romeo 156, 1m46.284s
Simone di Luca, Nissan Primera, 1m46.316s